Past Hogwarts : Year 5
by spiffykiwi
Summary: Elissa has always fancied James Potter but this year her best friend Lily betrays her and now James and Lily are an inseperable couple. But in the midst of everyone being upset Elissa may find the exact person she's really wanted all this time.
1. Welcome back to Hogwarts!

"ELISSA!" Someone shouted from the crowd. Fifteen-year-old Elissa Beckett turned around and instantly recognized the voice as her best friend Lily Evans'. Looking through the crowd, she finally caught sight of her friend.  
  
"Lily! I haven't seen you in ages!" Elissa said, so glad to see her friend again. They hadn't seen each other all summer. They had meant to get together but they lived so far away from each other and at the middle of the summer Lily had to go to France and there just wasn't enough time, but enough with the excuses, who cares! She was going back to Hogwarts today and she would see all her friends. How good it was to be back!  
  
"We better be getting on the train if we want to find room for all of us," Lily said, grabbing Elissa's arm and heading for the train. What Lily meant by 'all of us' was their group of friends. There were six of them and they had all been great friends since first year. All of them were in Gryffindor too. There was Elissa and Lily, who were of course best friends, Amber Fulke and Leslie Stryker, who were also best friends, and the last group of best friends were Sabrina Amery and Erica Worth.  
  
They got in the back of the train and found Amber, Erica, and Leslie already sitting together playing cards. "Hey look who it is girls!" Amber said. As the two girls sat down there were exclaims like "Elissa! You let your hair grow! I thought you were going to cut it?" and "Lily you need to tell me all about France! Were there any cute guys there?"  
  
Sabrina came into the car shortly afterwards and got the same sort of welcome. By the time they were all situated, the train started moving and they were off to Hogwarts for their fifth year.  
  
After a while the girls had settled down. They had already heard everyone's stories from the summer and had gotten changed into their robes. They had been playing cards for quite some time now.  
  
"Elissa? Are you staying or are you out?" Leslie said.  
  
"I'm out," She said, setting down her cards.  
  
"Okay then. Sabrina, what do you got?"  
  
"Full House," Sabrina said, putting her cards down face up for all of them to see. All of the girls groaned and put down their cards. Sabrina was the best poker player and she always won.  
  
"I'm bored," Lily said.  
  
Just then, the door to the car opened and in walked four boys whom all the girls knew were James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. The group was infamous for causing mischief wherever they went and leaving many girls heartbroken.  
  
"Hello Ladies," James said, sitting down next to the girls.  
  
"Look what the cat dragged in," Erica said who really didn't like the group. Ever since last year when she had told Sirius she fancied him and he had rejected her she hated him and anyone he hung out with.  
  
"Oh hush up Erica," Sirius said, sitting down next to Elissa.  
  
"You hush up yourself," Erica muttered.  
  
"So how was your summer girls?" James asked, taking no noticed of the two fighting.  
  
Peter sat down, running his hand nervously through his blonde hair. He never was any good around girls, especially nowadays. Remus chose to stand.  
  
"Why so interested?" Amber said flirtatiously. Amber was the drop-dead gorgeous beauty queen of the school and she never said no to an opportunity to flirt with a guy, it was just in her nature.  
  
"I think Sirius just came to stare at Amber," Sabrina mumbled.  
  
Sabrina also acted a bit cold towards Sirius because of what he did to her best friend, and especially because he went after Amber right after he rejected Erica. Sabrina didn't blame Amber, it wasn't her fault she had half the guys in the school after her. . .plus she had said no to Sirius just to be nice to Erica, now that was a real friend. But Sirius. . .well she would always think he was a rotten guy after that. If it were up to her, the group wouldn't hang around those boys at all, they were too much trouble, but some of the others didn't care as much as her about the Sirius thing. Plus Elissa fancied James so they couldn't take her away from talking to that group. Just the same, she wished they'd go away right now.  
  
"Sabrina?" Leslie asked.  
  
"Huh?" Sabrina said, snapping out of her train of thought.  
  
"I asked you where you got that lovely bracelet," she said.  
  
"Oh my dad's Shoppe," she said. Sabrina's parents were muggle-born and her dad owned a Shoppe in London.  
  
Lily looked out the window, "Oh! It looks like we're almost there!" Her eyes trailed to the boy's clothes, which were still their average normal day outfits. "You boys better changed into your robes, we're nearly there."  
  
The boys said their goodbyes and left the car with Erica and Sabrina still mumbling stuff about Sirius and the other three Marauders.  
  
Once they were gone, Elissa started on one of her James-is-so-handsome things while Leslie and Lily put away the stuff they had been using to play poker with.  
  
The train slowed to a stop.  
  
"Girls. Welcome back to Hogwarts!" Erica said.  
  
Amber checked her make-up one last time in her mirror and Elissa straightened her robes. They were ready to back to Hogwarts.  
  
After the carriage ride, the girls made their way into the Great Hall. Of course, Amber came in in her usual flirty way, smiling at certain guys as she passed.  
  
As they passed by the Slytherin Table, Elissa caught sight of Scarlett Howe. She hated that girl, her and her creepy boyfriend Severus Snape. Both of them were Slytherins to the core, especially Scarlett.  
  
Finally, the girls sat down at their usual place at the Gryffindor Table.  
  
"Do we have to go through the entire sorting ceremony? I'm so hungry, can't they just wait?" Sabrina said.  
  
"Shh! They're starting!" Leslie said.  
  
All eyes turned toward the front of the Great Hall where the sorting was just beginning.  
  
The hat began its song; Elissa didn't pay attention very much. It was basically just the same thing every year, just slightly changed. And who could concentrate anyway when Sabrina kept whispering her complaints of her hunger? Elissa didn't really blame her, she was actually feeling a bit famished herself.  
  
When the hat was finally finished, Professor Otis pulled out a long list and began the sorting. "Ashby, Melanie" was the first to go.  
  
After a few silent moments when she scurried to the hat and placed it on her head, she was sorted into the Ravenclaw House, whose occupants proceeded in cheering to welcome their newest member.  
  
Next was "Carter, Benjamin" and so on until it finally finished with "Weasley, William".  
  
As Dumbledore began his usual speech for the year, Elissa looked around the table at the new 1st years. There were so many of them this year. It was too bad the 7th years from last year were all gone now. She really missed her friend Bonnie Wright. . .  
  
Before they knew it the feast had begun and all sorts of food was appearing on the plates.  
  
"Finally!" Sabrina said, putting various things on her plate.  
  
Elissa looked over at Lily, who was looking over in the direction of the Marauders. "Lily? Are you going to eat?" she said.  
  
Lily broke her gaze and turned to Elissa. "What? Oh. . .ya. . .sure," she said.  
  
When the feast was over, the girls followed the rest of the Gryffindor House up to the Gryffindor Common Room. By that time they were feeling incredibly tired and cared nothing but getting into their old dormitories and sleeping. As they passed through the portrait hole, they barely caught that the new password, "Pesky Pixies". They trudged up to their dormitories, glad to be back at Hogwarts but more glad to go to sleep.  
  
"'Night everyone," one of the girls mumbled.  
  
Everyone else mumbled back a sleepy "Night" and with that they fell asleep. 


	2. Projects, Hogsmeade, and Quidditch

When Elissa awoke the next morning, she realized she was running on the late side and hurried to get ready. When all the girls were prepared, they made their way to the Great Hall and had a quick breakfast. They were lucky; they made it to Transfiguration just in the nick of time.  
  
Their fellow 5th year Gryffindors were already going into the classroom so they hurried to join them. There was no area with six empty desks so Sabrina, Leslie, Erica, and Amber took seats in the front of the room while Lily and Elissa took the last remaining seats, which were near the back of the room. The also happened to be right in front of the Marauders.  
  
Professor Otis soon walked in and stood in front of the classroom, "Good morning students."  
  
The class mumbled a weak "Good morning" back.  
  
"As you know," he continued, "this will be my last year teaching at Hogwarts, but I still expect you to learn just as much as any other ordinary year. I don't know who your teacher will be next year so I don't know how he or she will plan to teach so we'll just stick what I have for now. So, obviously, I expect you to learn and work extra hard this year like always. That's why I'm glad to announce we'll be starting the term with a project."  
  
The class groaned when the word "project" was mentioned. Professor Otis' "projects" usually required a lot of time and hard work.  
  
The Professor began to explain that they would be in groups of two and would be given until the Christmas holiday to finish. He then began a lecture of what the project would consist of.  
  
Elissa began to reach for her quill so she could take notes when something hit her back. She looked at the floor and saw it was a crumbled up piece of paper.  
  
Elissa turned around to see who the culprit was and saw Sirius grin and rip another strip from his torn paper and crumple it up, setting it on the edge of his desk, ready for use.  
  
"May I ask why you are throwing paper at me??" She asked, a bit annoyed he was interrupting her concentration while she had been trying to write down important information.  
  
Sirius shrugged, still grinning, "I'm bored."  
  
She turned back around, trying to pay attention to Professor Otis, who was now picking teams of two for the project but was soon hit by another piece of paper.  
  
"Sirius! Stop!" She whispered.  
  
"Ms. Beckett, Mr. Black. Since you two seem to have so much to say to each other right now why don't you discuss what you'll be doing for your project because I'm assigning you as partners."  
  
Elissa groaned, she had been hoping to be with Lily. Well, at least Sirius was smart. She only hoped he would pay more attention when they did their project then he did in class.  
  
"And for our last team. . .Ms. Evans and Mr. Potter, let's have you two be partners."  
  
"Well Beckett, you should be quite honoured to have me as a partner," Sirius joked in a high-and-mighty tone.  
  
"Oh be quiet Sirius, just meet me in the Library after classes are finished for the day so we can start on our project," Elissa said.  
  
"Why Madam, I would love to," he said, continuing his little charade.  
  
Elissa rolled her eyes and turned to the front of the room, where Professor Otis had begun to explain their assignment they would be doing in class that day.  
  
Sirius Black? Her partner? Now that she thought about it, this could be a lot more challenging then she thought.  
  
*  
  
That evening, Elissa sat in the Library with a stack of Transfiguration books around her. She was writing down ideas they could do for their project when Sirius walked in and sat down next to her, looking at the books.  
  
"Finally! You're here! Here, look through this list of ideas I made and see if you like any of them," she said, handing him the list.  
  
"Do you really need all these books?" He asked, not glancing at the list.  
  
Before she had time to argue about the importance of getting a head start on the project, Lily and James walked in, obviously there to work on their project too.  
  
"Hey Elissa! You working too?" Lily said as she and James sat down at their table.  
  
Elissa nodded and looked over at the two boys who had begun discussing their latest prank.  
  
"You're so lucky. . ." Elissa sighed, obviously referring to the fact that Lily got to be partners with James. It wasn't fair. Why couldn't she be with James? Then she'd have an excuse to hang around him a lot. Maybe he would start to fancy her. . .and he could ask her to the Annual Christmas Ball. . .and. . .instead she was stuck with Sirius. Now how was she going to get James to like her with Sirius as her partner? Maybe he could put in a good word for her. . .  
  
"Well, we better get started," James said.  
  
Lily got up, ready to search the Library to get a topic.  
  
"We'll leave you two alooonne," James smirked and winked at Sirius as he went off with Lily.  
  
Elissa rolled her eyes at James' comment and opened a Transfiguration book sitting next to her.  
  
"We could do it on Animagi," Sirius said.  
  
She looked up from her book, "Pardon?"  
  
"Our project. . .we could do it on Animagi. I know you don't have it written down here but I know loads about it and it would get us good marks if we work really hard on it," Sirius said.  
  
"Er. . .okay, sure," Elissa said, surprised they had agreed on a topic so easily but even more surprised that Sirius wanted to work hard on the project to get top marks. Maybe he enjoyed school more then she thought.  
  
She picked up another book, "I think this one has something about Animagi in it."  
  
"Try that one," Sirius said, pointing to an old looking book that was rather thick, "It should have a lot of information in it."  
  
Elissa picked up the one he had pointed to and sure enough, there was a whole chapter on Animagi.  
  
"How do you know so much about Animagi?" Elissa asked suspiciously, knowing he didn't study THAT much.  
  
Sirius shrugged, "Guess I just do."  
  
*  
  
As the weeks passed, Sirius and Elissa were beginning to develop a good friendship. They didn't hang around each other anymore then they normally had but when they were working on their project together, they got along great.  
  
Elissa didn't envy Lily as much as she had before about her project partner, though she still hung out with James at every opportunity she could find. She didn't tell anyone, but she mentally decided that this would be the year where she would ask James to the Annual Christmas Ball and hopefully he would say yes. It would be better then spending her whole schooling at Hogwarts obsessed, with him not even knowing it. It wouldn't be that hard. . .would it?  
  
By the time October came around, Sirius and Elissa were getting pretty far into their project. Some of the other teams weren't doing so great which made her glad they had started early.  
  
The third Friday of October, the first Hogsmeade trip of the year was scheduled and two days later, on the Sunday, would be the first Quidditch match of the year. Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. Everyone in the school was excited about both events and were anxiously awaiting the weekend's arrival.  
  
Finally, the day arrived to go to Hogsmeade and almost everyone in the entire school went.  
  
*  
  
"Hurry before the crowd gets too big!" Amber called, heading towards her favourite Boutique Shoppe. She wanted to be the first one in to make sure she had a big selection before everyone else bought everything. The girls hurried quickly to the store.  
  
"Morning girls," Mrs. Logan, the owner of the Shoppe, said. Mrs. Logan knew the girls very well. Every Hogsmeade trip since first year, the girls had spent hours shopping here. The Shoppe carried all the latest fashions and it was probably one of Amber's most favourite Shoppes in all of England.  
  
After a couple hours, the girls finished up their shopping and headed for the Three Broomsticks to get some butterbeer before they went back.  
  
Once inside, they heard someone call, "Lily, Elissa! Over here!" It was Sirius and James calling them, sitting at a little table in the corner.  
  
Lily and Elissa decided to go sit with the boys while the other girls, who weren't as fond of the two boys as Elissa and Lily were, sat at another table nearby.  
  
"So, what have you boys been up to?" Lily asked, after ordering a butterbeer for her and another one for Elissa.  
  
"Just the usual. Zonko's, Honeydukes. . .you know," James said.  
  
"Where are Remus and Peter?" Elissa asked, noticing the other two Marauders were absent.  
  
"Peter's got detention and Remus is. . .feeling a bit ill today," James said.  
  
"You girls coming to the game tomorrow?" Sirius asked, changing the subject quickly. James and Sirius were both excellent Chasers for the Gryffindor team.  
  
"Wouldn't miss it for anything," Lily said, smiling at James.  
  
"It should be an easy match," Sirius said, "They haven't gotten a very good team this year, plus they're no match for James' Silver Arrow. The Silver Arrow was a good broom, none faster and James could out-fly anyone in the school.  
  
"All Hogwarts students, back into the carriages!" a Professor called from the door.  
  
"Already?" Elissa said, frowning. She was beginning to enjoy her time with James. The two girls said their goodbyes and caught up with the rest of their group and headed back to the carriages.  
  
Elissa couldn't wait for the Quidditch game tomorrow!  
  
*  
  
Elissa awoke early that morning, refreshed and ready to watch Gryffindor make a victory. Elissa noticed Lily was already gone, that was odd. . .Lily and Elissa always got ready for Quidditch matches together. They would take extra long since every cute guy in the school would be there. Oh well. . .maybe Lily had forgotten?  
  
Elissa got ready quickly, not taking the extra care she would've if Lily had been there with her, and headed down to the Great Hall.  
  
When she arrived, the only people she saw at her table were people on the Gryffindor team, and of course, Lily.  
  
When she sat down she noticed Lily and James were sitting across from each other and were in deep conversation, while Sirius sat next to James, looking quite bored.  
  
Sirius looked up when Elissa sat down and instantly his expression changed from bored to thank-goodness-someone-to-talk-to!  
  
"Elissa! Great for you to join us!" Sirius said. "I've been sitting here listening to these two blabber on for almost half an hour and I was at the point where I couldn't stand it anymore."  
  
"Why didn't you just talk to them?" Elissa asked, referring to his fellow teammates.  
  
"Them?" Sirius asked, as if his answer stated the obvious.  
  
In a way he was kind of right. They didn't look like the sort of bunch right for talking at the moment.  
  
Alex Smith and Ryan Corey, the two beaters, looked like they were about to fall asleep in their cereal.  
  
Michael Peterson, the Seeker (and captain of the team) was scribbling down Quidditch moves, then furiously erasing them continually muttering, "NO! That can't be right. . ." She figured if anyone bothered him in his angry concentration there was a big chance he might explode.  
  
Karen King, the other Chaser on the team, looked almost as tired as Alex and Ryan.  
  
Last, but not least, there was the Keeper. Melissa Elderbridge. Little, annoying Melissa, the only one who looked the most capable of talking right then. She could see why Sirius didn't want to talk to her. Melissa was 13, annoying, and had a crush on the Marauders, all four of them. She wasn't the easiest to get along with.  
  
"I guess you're right," Elissa said. Okay, so it wasn't the kind of people she'd hang out with but they were probably the best Quidditch players in the school. There was no way they'd loose the Quidditch cup again this year!  
  
"So are you prepared Sirius? Not going to get nervous are you?" Elissa teased.  
  
"There you two are! I was a bit surprised to find both of you already gone. . .I thought you two always got ready for Quidditch matches together," Sabrina said to Lily and Elissa, as she sat down with Erica.  
  
Elissa looked at Lily, who was still talking to James and didn't look as if she had noticed Sabrina and Erica, and frowned, "I thought we did too."  
  
*  
  
The morning went by quickly and soon, the whole school was sitting in the bleachers, ready for the Quidditch game to start.  
  
"Welcome to Hogwarts' first Quidditch match of the year!" Carly Batchelor's, a 3rd year Ravenclaw, voice could be heard all around the field.  
  
"And here comes the Slytherin Team. . .Walcott, Nelson, English, Williams, Snyder, Tauber, and Rogers." There were loud cheers from the Slytherin House as Carly announced their team.  
  
"And for the Gryffindor team's line-up we have Smith, Corey, Black, King, Potter, Elderbridge, and Peterson!" Most of the school was cheering for the Gryffindor team (no one really like the Slytherin team except the Slytherins, who were now booing the Gryffindor team).  
  
"The teams are mounting their brooms, waiting for Professor Quintin's whistle. . .and they're off! The Quaffle has now been released and Snyder is the first to take possession of it, but it is quickly taken by Potter in Snyder's attempt to pass it to English. The ball is passed to King, to Black, and back to Potter and he scores! 10 points for Gryffindor!"  
  
There was massive cheering from the Gryffindor side of the field, happy for their lead. They hadn't won the cup in years and this year just had to be the year.  
  
The game continued on, with Gryffindor scoring 4 more times and Slytherin only 2. So the score was now Gryffindor 50, Slytherin 20. Michael had almost caught the Snitch near the beginning but had swerved out of the way when a Slytherin beater had sent a Bludger his was and he had lost sight of it. The game was getting more intense as it progressed, and the Slytherins were playing rougher and rougher.  
  
"King is in control of the Quaffle. . .ooo that Bludger nearly hit her but she still has the ball. King passes it to Black and. . .he scores! Gryffindor still leads with 60 to 20!"  
  
Elissa stood up and cheered along with the rest of her fellow Gryffindors as the Gryffindor Quidditch team cheered Sirius' play.  
  
Just then, one of the Slytherin Beaters swung his bat, sending a Bludger straight at Sirius and hitting him right in the back of his head.  
  
Elissa gasped along with the rest of the crowd as Sirius, broom and all, plummeted straight down fifty feet to the ground.  
  
Carly's always calm voice came aloud on the speaker again, "It looks as if Black has been knocked out cold. Not to worry everyone, it doesn't seem that he has suffered any serious damage but Gryffindor is calling in a replacement while Black is being taken to the Hospital Wing. That's a penalty shot for Gryffindor for Slytherin intentionally hitting a Gryffindor Chaser. . ."  
  
"Oh my goodness I hope he's alright," Elissa muttered to herself, quickly standing up.  
  
"Lis? Where are you going?" Leslie said.  
  
"I need to see if he's okay!"  
  
*  
  
Elissa had been sitting in the Hospital Wing for almost an hour now and Sirius still hadn't regained consciousness. She had arrived as quickly as possible and Remus and Peter had run in shortly afterwards.  
  
The door opened and in walked Lily and James. "Is he still out?" James asked.  
  
Remus nodded, but Elissa didn't glance at the two. She was really concerned that Sirius had gotten hurt and was hoping he would be awake soon so she would know if he was all right.  
  
"Well we won if anyone was wondering," James said.  
  
"Quidditch? How could you talk about Quidditch right now? You're best friend is hurt and all you talk about is Quidditch. Really now James I thought you were better then that," Elissa said.  
  
"What are you two arguing about now?" A voice came from behind her.  
  
Elissa turned around to see Sirius sitting up in bed. "Sirius! You're okay!"  
  
"I'm actually quite fine if you don't count this throbbing pain in the back of my head," Sirius said. He looked around the room and saw James, "So did we win?"  
  
Boys. Quidditch. Augh it was intolerable! 


End file.
